The Sociology of War and Violence

War is a highly complex and dynamic form of social conflict. This new book
demonstrates the importance of using sociological tools to understand the changing
character of war and organised violence. The author offers an original analysis of
the historical and contemporary impact that coercion and warfare have on the
transformation of social life, and vice versa. Although war and violence were decisive
components in the formation of modernity most analyses tend to shy away from
the sociological study of the gory origins of contemporary social life. In contrast,
this book brings the study of organised violence to the fore by providing a wide-
ranging sociological analysis that links classical and contemporary theories with
specific historical and geographical contexts. Topics covered include violence before
modernity, warfare in the modern age, nationalism and war, war propaganda,
battlefield solidarity, war and social stratification, gender and organised violence,
and the new wars debate.

Siniša Malešević is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology
at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His recent books include Identity as
Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism (2006), The Sociology of Ethnicity
(2004) and a co-edited volume, Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought
(Cambridge, 2007).

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 The Sociology of War and
Violence

Siniša Malešević

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 camb rid ge un iv e r sit y pre ss
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,
São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521731690

© Siniša Malešević 2010

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2010

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Malešević Siniša.
  The sociology of war and violence / Siniša Malešević.
   p.  cm.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-0-521-51651-8 – ISBN 978-0-521-73169-0 (pbk.)
  1.  War and society.  2.  Sociology, Military.  3.  Violence–Social aspects.  I.  Title.
  HM554.M35 2010
  303.6–dc22
  2010014629

ISBN 978-0-521-51651-8 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-73169-0 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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 For my grandmother Vuka, a decorated survivor of two brutal wars, and for
my two boys, Alex and Luka, with a hope that they will never experience the
calamity of organised violence.

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Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Forschungsinstitut, on 31 Jan 2020 at 09:56:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at
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